If you, like many people, are thinking about which portions of your estate could be passed on for philanthropic causes, you are not alone.
Many people consider that giving to charity is a worthwhile goal to consider in their overall estate planning process.
When you are contemplating a major charitable gift, you have many different options at your disposal, including charitable trust, donor advice funds and private family foundations. These work in the following manner:
Charitable trust: These are used to maintain charitable giving over time. A charitable remainder trust, for example, allows the donor to make a major gift to charity, utilizes charitable deduction at the current time and retain the income from that property for several years.- Donor advice trust: These at local community foundations manage assets in a similar way that a traditional investment account does.
- Private family foundations: These allow donors to make substantial gifts as well as to stay involved with how the gift is distributed over time. Private family foundations can operate as corporations or as a trust. Any family members as well as the donor may be eligible to serve as the board of directors or the trustees when making distributions to charity. This also gives the donor additional opportunities to leave behind a legacy that can provide for selected charities for multiple generations to come.
No matter how you approach this issue, scheduling a consultation with an experienced and knowledgeable estate planning lawyer is strongly recommended.
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